Adafruit DC & Stepper Motor HAT for Raspberry Pi - Motor Compatability

[nickkarl]

I am struggling to determine if this motor will be compatible with the stepper motor HAT. It is a NEMA 23, 5Volt 1.8 Amp motor with a phase resistance of 2.75 ohms. The voltage is low for the HAT so I was planning on using a 12v to 5v step down between the HAT and the motor. Is this possible?

https://www.amazon.com/STEPPERONLINE-Cu ... ast_sto_dp

[adafruit_support_bill]

That motor is not compatible. It was designed for use with a current limiting 'chopper' type driver. the Motor HAT does not have current limiting.
https://learn.adafruit.com/all-about-st ... he-stepper

Stepper motor specs don't always mean what they appear to mean. Especially the voltage rating. These motors are absolutely not intended for operation with a 5v supply. They would never achieve the rated torque if operated with a 5v supply. Most people will be running those motors with a supply voltage in the 24v-48v range - but with a current limiting driver that 'chops' the current at 1.8 Amps. The link above explains this in more detail.

[nickkarl]

Thanks for the help! Could a chopper driver be used in conjunction with HATs on one raspberry pi? I am trying to operate 2 different types of stepper motors off of one raspberry pi. I also have a power supply with multiple outputs so the achieving higher voltage requirements of this motor (24-48v) is not an issue.

[adafruit_support_bill]

www.pololu.com has a good selection of current-limiting stepper driver boards. Most of them use a simple step & direction interface, so you will just need 2 GPIO pins to control them:
https://www.pololu.com/category/120/ste ... or-drivers

They also have some more sophisticated driver boards that can be connected via USB or I2C: https://www.pololu.com/category/212/tic ... ontrollers